Atletico manager Diego Pablo Simeone faced the press after the draw against Mallorca. When asked about the Julian Alvarez substitution, the Argentinian coach was full of praise for him and understood his reaction to being replaced.
Another setback for Atletico in La Liga. Los Rojiblancos could only manage a 1-1 draw against Mallorca and have only picked up 6 points out of a possible 15. In the press conference, Diego Pablo Simeone shared his initial thoughts on the game.
“We are trying to build a new team. Many players have come in and that’s what we’re working on. We are on the right path and hoping that efficiency and incisiveness will get us closer to the results we are striving for,” he began.
The defence, the main problem: “From the coach’s point of view, we have to look at the positives and correct what we need to correct. We need to improve defensively. The team has started by scoring in every match, but we need to improve to sustain our performance throughout the matches.”
Simeone also spoke about Julian Alvarez’s frustration at being substituted: “Julian Alvarez is the best attacking player we have. We need to get the best out of him. He was having a great match. I felt we needed Sorloth, and he ended up getting sent off in a confusing incident. With Julian Alvarez… all players get angry when they come off, it’s normal.”
“It doesn’t matter if it was a yellow card, if it was a red card… In the end, it was a red card. With one man down, we set ourselves up to take advantage of Marcos’ speed. We did what we had to do, but we couldn’t hold on to the result,” said ‘El Cholo’ about the Norwegian’s dismissal.
Finally, Simeone explained the substitution of Pablo Barrios: “He had played 90 minutes the other day. He had taken a knock… Gallagher came on and scored a goal.”
